Our group's plan to read 'The Midnight Library' fell apart because everyone just wanted to talk about the ending

We picked it for our April book, and I was actually looking forward to a real chat about regret and choices. But at the meeting, it turned into a half hour of people just saying if they liked or hated the final chapter. One person called it a 'cop-out', another said it was perfect. That was it. I tried to bring up the structure, like how the library itself worked as a metaphor, but the conversation kept snapping back to that last page. It happened about three weeks ago. I left feeling like we missed the whole point of the book by focusing on one piece. Has your club ever gotten stuck on just the ending and ignored everything else that came before it?

3 comments

3 Comments

bennett.jana2mo ago

Did this happen with my friend's club and that book about the woman who dies over and over? They got so stuck on if the last death was fair that they never talked about all the cool history she lived through. It's like judging a whole trip just by the airport you left from. Some groups just latch onto the final feeling and forget the journey.

harper_foster2mo ago

Ugh, @bennett.jana, totally saw that take on a blog.

emery_black2mo ago

See this all the time with people reviewing movies based on the ending alone.